Toronto corn ethanol company GreenField Ethanol and Montreal cellulosic biofuel firm Enerkem have agreed to jointly build facilities to make cellulosic ethanol, starting with a plant in Canada.
The two companies announced Tuesday they had signed a binding term sheet for ethanol production on a commercial scale at plants in “specified geographic areas.”
Their first location in Canada has been “secured” and will be announced in coming weeks, while a second plant is also in development, they said.
“By joining forces with GreenField Ethanol, we are poised to become the Canadian leaders in the production and distribution of new generation biofuels,” said Enerkem CEO Vincent Chornet in the two companies’ release.
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“GreenField’s experience in building and operating industrial plants will be key to scaling up our production.”
Enerkem’s process uses biomass such as “urban wood residues” and sorted municipal solid waste to produce cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels. On its own, the company is building a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant at Westbury, Que., northeast of Sherbrooke where the company keeps its engineering office.
Enerkem said its pilot gasification plant, which has run more than 3,000 hours since 2003, makes syngas, methanol and cellulosic ethanol.
GreenField, on its own, has capacity for 250 million litres a year of fuel ethanol at two plants in Ontario and one in Quebec. A 200 million-litre capacity plant is expected to be open in December at Johnstown, west of Belleville, Ont., and a 145 million-litre plant at Hensall, north of London, Ont.
